REQUESTING HELP WITH HOW TO VERB

Good morning and happy Friday, everyone. Welcome back to the Daily Vitamin,

This week we have been looking at some ways to request help politely in English. So far we have seen examples for requesting help using the modal verbs CAN and COULD (Can / Could you show me...?) and for asking about processes with HOW YOU (How do you turn on...?).

Today we will combine these two phrases.

HOW TO VERB

Yesterday we looked at the direct question How do you do this? When we combine this phrase with a permission modal verb to request help (CAN or COULD), we cannot use a direct question. We must change our 'HOW' question to an indirect form.

We use this formula: HOW TO base infinitive verb

INCORRECT: **Can you tell me how do you do this?**

CORRECT: Can you tell me how to do this?

Notice that we only use the subject pronoun you once, with the first verb in the question (in this case with can you tell).

Example 1:
A: Can you tell me how to transfer a call?
B: Of course. It's easy.

Example 2:
A: Could you explain* how to download this file?
B: Yes. It's not hard to do.

(*It is correct to say tell me. However, it is NOT correct to say **explain me**. The verb explain is NOT used with a personal direct-object pronoun.)

If you would like more information about how to use the content from today's Daily Vitamin, please don't hesitate to post a question to one of our social media sites (Facebook or Bluesky). And of course, as always, I encourage you to write your own sentence using today's content to our social media sites, in order to get some English practice. We will give you feedback about your writing ASAP. 

Have a good rest of the day and a relaxing weekend!